The Soaring Safety Foundation (SSF) is the Training and Safety arm of the Soaring Society of America (SSA).
Our mission is to provide instructors and pilots with the tools needed to teach/learn both the stick & rudder skills and
the Aeronautical Decision Making skills needed to safely fly a glider. We also provide information and analysis of incident
and accident trends in order to develop better training tools.

The SSF is pleased to announce a revised web site with a new look and feel. As with any update, it will take a few days to find and fix
any links that don't work. If you find a broken link or notice that something you use to use is no longer available then contact the
SSF webmaster at webmaster@soaringsafety.org. Simply note the page you are looking at and the link
that no longer works, or the typo that you think needs to be corrected. New features and content will be uploaded as the site stablizes.
Thank you for your willingness to support the SSF. The SSF Trustees Rich, Ron, Burt, Steve, and Tom.

The Soaring Incident Database is now available to help pilots, safety officers, clubs, and commercial operators
develop new programs that can help prevent incidents from becoming major accidents. See more incidents by
searching the database or register a new incident.

Region

Pilot Certificate

Pilot Injuries

Passenger Injuries

Type of Flight

Launch Method

Type of Aircraft

East

CFI

None

None

Local

Aero Tow

ASW-20C

Incident Activity

Damage to Aircraft

Damage to Canopy

Incident Date

Incident Time

Weather

SSA Member

Flight

Minor

2009-03-22

1200-1400

Clear

Yes

Incident Description

Gear up landing.

Other Comments

Relief tube in this ship drains from a tube affixed to the landing gear, requiring the gear be extended to use. On second attempt to use the system after several hours in wave, was discovered that the drain had frozen requiring some yoga-like antics to resolve the situation. This distraction led to a failure to retract the gear. Later, in the landing checklist, the gear was RETRACTED, leading to the incident. Several ways to have prevented this come to mind.